Cockpit Anchor Light
- Thread starter jviss
- Start date
While you are looking for something in maritime case law for instances of citation for improper lighting you are far more likely to trip over all sorts of floating DIY jury-rigged tom-foolery by similarly inclined guys who know better than the folks who actually designed and built their boats.
This isnt about an anchor light but pretty scary about miscarriages of justice...
https://abc7news.com/archive/7215012/
https://abc7news.com/archive/7215012/
I just looked it up. He settled in 2014, it's not clear how much he got but the article says about $210,000. Lake County's, Sacramento County's and the former deputy's insurance paid it out with Lake County on the hook for a $10,000 deductible.
http://www.lakeconews.com/index.php...prosecution-settled&catid=1:latest&Itemid=197
When I sail at night I keep my streamlight (I don't have spotlight) in the cockpit along with the air horn. When I see both green and red lights coming at me fast the first thing is five short blasts with the air horn-on my lake Im pretty sure no one knows diddly squat about proper horn signals, but five blasts might get their attention over the motor-if they are still coming at me they get the streamlight slightly to the left of the green bow light. It has always worked for me and I don't apologize for it.
The anchor lights on most boats in my area don’t meet the 360⁰ rule, but nobody seems to be breaking chops about it here. I have been told that down in the keys, they do break chops & write tickets freely.
Several people I know use the little solar pathway lights on the backs of their boats when they are on the ball in the mooring field. Some also use the solar rope lights on the mast & boom. That all seems to work OK in the mooring field. I think that in the designated field, the lights are not required, but I need to look that up to be sure.
I think that in addition to the 360⁰ rule, there is also a brightness or viewable distance requirement that varies with the size of the boat, but I need to look that up too. It’s been a while since I specified rigging for a new boat.
Whatever anchor light you get, make it a LED. The battery draw difference between incandescent & LED is huge. Unfortunately the quality of LEDs varies. Some of the cheap ones cause radio interference.
Several people I know use the little solar pathway lights on the backs of their boats when they are on the ball in the mooring field. Some also use the solar rope lights on the mast & boom. That all seems to work OK in the mooring field. I think that in the designated field, the lights are not required, but I need to look that up to be sure.
I think that in addition to the 360⁰ rule, there is also a brightness or viewable distance requirement that varies with the size of the boat, but I need to look that up too. It’s been a while since I specified rigging for a new boat.
Whatever anchor light you get, make it a LED. The battery draw difference between incandescent & LED is huge. Unfortunately the quality of LEDs varies. Some of the cheap ones cause radio interference.
Take your dink out a couple hundred yards and do a circuit around the boat. The mast won't block the light. Well, maybe how thick a mast do you have?
We did a lot of research on this, including contacting the Coast Guard Station in Charleston. A SC DNR "officer" came by our Yacht Club and said that all the boats on the moorings (about 12) had to display anchor lights. We challenged this since we have an "approved" mooring field. However, on further investigation we determined that the COLREGs exemption to not display a anchor light is for a "designated anchorage." Just because someone gets a mooring field "approved" doesn't mean it is a "designated anchorage." The CG stated that to be a "designated anchorage" it must be so noted on Charts (he didn't say NOAA or they kind of chart but I'd assume he means NOAA charts). If you think about it, that makes sense because how would a transiting vessel know there might be boats there an anchor without an anchor light if it were not marked on charts? Do idiots even look at their charts or know what it means? Probably not, but at least in a liability situation being properly lighted is some "protection" when the lawyers start to did into who was at fault.
I have an LED anchor light at the top of the mast and hang a Davis LED anchor light hanging about 10 feet off the water at my stern. Too many idiots out there and our mooring field is adjacent to the AICW. I have always had it since I moved to the mooring and can't understand why someone wouldn't want at least some sort of light displayed, USCG approved or not.
that is because in New England all the mooring fields are designated on charts. Mooring fields are a big deal up north so all the procedures are well known and followed and placed on charts. In most other places, it's not common knowledge. As in the case of the Fla Keys. Even IN designated mooring fields there, an anchor light is required. Quiz time...Anybody know why?
Also, the requirement is NOT 360 degrees. I don't know the exact radius but it is less than 360 so a mast blocking the anchor light is not necessarily a violation.